Kathy Gyngell, CPS Expert, argues for an end to Child Benefits and a return to Child Tax Allowance to end the dependency on state handouts.

"'You know, I’d be better off if I divorced my wife.'

That’s what a friend - a father of four - said when George Osborne first revealed his plan to take child benefit away from the so-called wealthy. He was right of course. Earning more than £42,750, and certainly not wealthy, he is set to lose £60.50 in Child Benefit a week (for four children that by the way he and his wife adopted as babies), the total loss adding up to £3,146 a year.

'When I lose that,' he said, 'I will need to earn an extra £5,250 a year before tax to make up for it' (=£ 3,150 after tax).

Osborne's leftist determination to be fair begs the question of the rights of the top 1 per cent of earners who contribute 26 per cent of income tax. If they are still allowed to use the NHS and state schools that their tax pays for does the same not apply to their Child Benefit too? Or maybe, as my friend suggested, it would make it easier for them to ‘Gift Aid’ it.

Lose the principle of universality and all is lost. Everyone is dragged down by a means tested world. The irony is that far from being ‘wealthy’ the single earner family with three children, on a salary of £40,000 a year, is actually little better off than a similar family on benefits. It is already snared by the proverbial benefits trap."

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